An email to the teacher....

I wrote:
Currently this past weekend Grace was with her father. So if you find that she is distant or has attitude, please let me know, this is a hard transition the first day back for her to get back into the groove of things. His life is very unstructured, leaving hers...well you can imagine the same. Please let me know if she has difficulty.

Also, Currently she is reading Eragon for Oct. 3rd on her reading log, she is having a hard time getting into this book, and is not enjoying it, where Old Yeller was a very thrilling read for her. The reason I say this is due to the fact she went on a mini-strike and refused to read the rest of it, because Old Yeller had been shot. She wound up in hysterical tears, and once convinced to finish reading, she wound up in tears once more. :0) I explained to her that the author did a wonderful job if you feel you connect with the characters in one way or another, that is the reason the book is now a classic. LOL It was touching to see her do this. My reasoning behind this email is to ask if she can change her last book. Unfortunately I wrote it in ink when we agreed upon the book when she started school, but she found this to be tragic because she isn't getting into it. I do believe that she is fine with reading it, she is intimidated with the length of the book. Any suggestions here? Or can we change it?

Thanks so much!


Mrs. Harshbargers Reply.....

Mrs. Romack,

Yes! Grace can certainly find a new book. The second book does not even have to be a chapter book. Old Yeller was her Newbery Award chapter book, so she can read anything of her choice for the second book. I warned Grace that Old Yeller was a sad book, and I wondered how she would handle the traumatic ending! Your reference to author connection was great! Feel free to have Grace choose a new book.

As far as Grace's behavior today, she did not have a productive morning, and she basically sat at her desk for thirty minutes ignoring my prompts to get started on morning work. She ended up paying several fines, and by mid-morning was back to her more productive self. Thank you for the information because it helps me!

Sincerely,

Mrs. H.


Grace's progress report came home also on Friday...
It was stressed that most children are improving greatly but since the curriculum is much harder not to stress about the bad grades. ;0) I know Grace has a hard time focusing which is most of why she has fault in some areas.

Reading she is at 90% A-
Writing she is at 81.1% B
Spelling she is at 96.8% A
Math she is at 90.9% A
Science/Health is at 70% C
Social Studies is at 75.7% C

There was a part of the Lesson of learning Lafayette's history, that she failed to do the work a few weeks into class (I would assume to test her limits)...and lied to me about it. This received her an F and directly impacted her writing, science/health, and social studies grades at this time. :0( That was discouraging to say the least, but we are doing much better.

We are now into day ummm...4 of the bathroom remodel...an hour into the work, My husband and Myles are feverishly working on the plumbing. Last night we got the trim around the window outside the house, this evening I was painting. Needless to say one of the kids decided to push the plastic bag into the tray of paint I was storing from sealing one side of the boards before they were hung, and I had paint all over my hands. Nothing like having paint goop to contend with. The worst part, when I came into get dinner out of the oven and get the kids fed...low and behold they had shut the water off. GARRRRR......... So shower cleaner and a towel have been my best friend. Because there has been two applications so far on the bare boards to get a good seal on them. :0P It never ends.....